MustangGT

Emerald E404 - bed against the wall. September, 2012

Well that's a little rich for my budget. I guess we can be a bit more leisurely getting to the ship in April. :rolleyes:

We are also boarding the Emerald on 4/8. I read Pescado Amarillo's blog - they spend over 100 nights on the Emerald (still on the ship) and sent her an email about the Sanctuary prices. She reported yesterday that the prices for the Sanctuary are still $20 a day. Crossing my fingers that it doesn't change before we board!!

We have done it and it was great! We changed the items since DH doesn't want fish for breakfast :-) We ordered omelets with the fruit, danish, OJ and Champagne. Enjoyed our Mimosas and a relaxing cruising breakfast.

The only downfall was that they bring all the food at once - I think there were 5 trays!! We had to put some of them on the floor while we ate our way through the feast. Yes, a lot of food but it was delicious!

We were on a 10 day cruise. Price was stated $20 per day. We paid $200 for the cruise. Guess that wasn't right!!:eek:

I am just off the Emerald Princess today after 20 days in the sanctuary. $135 per 10 day cruise. I was told by the sanctuary manager that starting today the price was doubled. That would be $270 per 10 day per person. They do not open the sanctuary on embarkation day. I may have to rethink my inside cabin strategy.

 

They also told me the price for crown grill and Sabitinis would be going up but they were staggering the price increases. I find that staggering, pun intended.

Thanks for the update! We were on the Emerald last year and the Sanctuary was $20 per day/per person and there was no discount for booking the entire cruise. Since we had not experienced the Sanctuary, we decided to go ahead and book for the cruise. We were looking forward to booking it again on the Emerald in April.

Why, oh Why, can't Princess be consistent with pricing?? You were able to book the Sanctuary for $13.50 a day for the 10-day cruise? That's a bigger discount than I have ever heard of - normally cruisers have said they got it for $15 a day if booking for the entire cruise. I'm wondering if when they say it will double - is that double of the $13.50 you paid, the $15 others have paid, or the $20 I paid last year?? Whew! If only someone could answer that!!:D

I convinced DH last year to go ahead even though we weren't getting a discount for booking the entire cruise, and we had cruising friends who wanted to book it also. If it is more than $20 a day, I don't see us in the Sanctuary for the entire cruise this time.

WOW!!! That IS an upgrade! Enjoy the suite life! And, yes - go buy a lottery ticket in case you haven't used up all your luck!

We are sailing on the Emerald in April - can't wait!

Some have said that it's possibly to have the Champagne Breakfast delivered to their Sanctuary lounger.

That sounds like a good idea! When we ordered the Breakfast on our balcony, we were overrun with food! We would have a little more room to spread out in the Sanctuary! Now I have more incentive to do the dash as soon as we board the Emerald in April to get a spot for us in the Sanctuary!!:D

Hoping for a quick recovery for your husband and another cruise for you both soon! We will be on the Emerald on 4/8 - I'm sure there would be room for 2 more!

Thanks Sue and Lewie for taking us along on your cruise!

Hope to read more next time you sail!

As of 7:55 Central I get this from Princess when looking at cruise availability using Internet Explorer:

We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

It appears that something has gone wrong and we were not able to continue to the next step.

• Your current session has timed out. Please close the current window and try again.
  

I get this message very frequently - frustrating! I use MacBook or iPad and Chrome most times.

I think Princess recommends 12:30 as the earliest flight time, so it's only 5 minutes earlier than that.

 

Unless something drastic happens with returning to port on time or immigration, it's very doable. We have made a 10:30 flight with no problems, although I wouldn't recommend that.

 

The airport is really close to the cruise port, which helps.

I don't think the Miami airport is "really close" to the port in Ft. Lauderdale:D

If your flight was 30 minutes or more before the Princess recommendation, it might be an issue. 5 minutes should not make it or break it. Of course, it depends on if you like ending a relaxing vacation with a possible adventure!

I am also in the camp of appreciating that my cruise starts once I step onto the ship. No lugging around carry-ons and having to wait for my cabin to be ready. More than worth the trade-off of having to vacate my cabin early on the last day:)

I agree that you should check with your TA or Princess now. It will be much easier to get it straight before you cruise! We have now sailed 3 times that we didn't have to apply for the credit - it's part of my DH's profile now. So much better than having to send in paperwork for every cruise!

caribill is correct: as I said, the crew was very nice and professional and they were very concerned about everyone's safety, which is a wonderful positive. They split us up into groups of 7 and each group had a guide. But, the guides were like mother hens and would not let us stray too far away, and we kept running into the other groups as we were all swimming around the same small area. For experienced snorkelers, it was incredibly frustrating. It would be great, maybe, for a family who was taking their small children for the first time, as safety was so emphasized. But, for us, it was terribly disappointing. Unfortunately, I cannot report on the other reef snorkeling excursion. And, I must say that others on our trip did say that they enjoyed it, so your mileage may vary. Hope that helps. ;)

 

I also meant to mention, the only thing "wrong with the cruise" thus far as that we have not seen the chicken and cashew salad in the International Cafe once the whole time. The horror. ;)

 

Today the weather is not bad: cloudy with some sun and about 72 degrees I would guess. Will write more later.

:eek: No chicken and cashew salad in the IC??? Oh, the horrors!! I would demand a full refund!! Isn't that item the only reason to sail Princess? :D

Keep up the tag-team blogging! Are you enjoying the cultural offerings on the cruise?

So happy to have another Lewie style Live!! Have a wonderful cruise!

:D:D:D

 

I never thought about my clothes being flat :p

 

Honestly, I have had numerous people at work stop me and ask me how I get my clothes to look so nice. I tell them I iron them and they look at me like I have 2 heads.

 

My husband is better at ironing than the dry cleaners. I call him Iron Man.

Another iron fan here! Nothing better than crisply ironed clothes!! I actually like to iron so I must be insane!:D

Just spoke with Princess. The suites available for the upsell are Riviera mid ship. I am hesitant because it is directly below the Lido deck which I am assuming can be noisy with moving chaise lounges and people walking and youngsters running. I am an early riser so it would not bother me buy my dh likes to sleep in and I wonder if this spot would be too noisy. Any feedback from experience is appreciated. The cruise is in February but I need to get back to Princess asap. Thanks

Our cruise friends were updated to a PH on CB a few years ago. They were NOT happy with the cabin! Early morning noise while loungers were set up and noisy at night when the decks were cleared. Add to that the narrow balcony and they would say stay where you are. YMMV :-)

IMHO, the best Promenades in the fleet are on Sapphire, Diamond, Island, Coral, Dawn, Sea and Sun Princesses. Wide with nice teak steamer chairs.

After being on the Island 2x and the Emerald 2x, I prefer the 'no stairs required' Promenade on the Island :-)

What ship?

Glad you got it straightened out! I agree that it's not the amount, it's the principle! We have had bar charges on our account before that were not ours, but it was posted before the last day and we were able to straighten it out with Passenger Services.

This thread is 4 years old. The bungalows have been in use for some time:D

I vote for the Ruby for 2 reasons.

We love Quebec City!!! We have done a 'land trip' and a 10-day cruise on the Emerald last fall.

We prefer cruises longer than 7 days. With all the preparation and travel to meet the ship, we want lots of time on board.

Our most recent cabin on Emerald Princess was C738. Don't remember any noises or vibrations. We must have enjoyed that cabin - we booked it again for our next cruise on the Emerald.:)

We went through the exact same thing and there was never an explanation given as to why they did it. The reservation was marked as "do not upgrade", yet they moved us to a what they considered a better category MS. We considered it a major downgrade from what we picked out. We finally got the room next to the original after about a week. None of it made any sense though as there was something like 10 rooms in the same area, all same category, that were still available. Only 6-8 rooms were booked when I looked at it, and of course our original room was booked. The rooms on both sides were not booked either, so not as if it was a family, trying to get rooms together.

 

When we are on ship, and I see the people who are in our original room next door, I am going to ask them how they got that room. I don't know if they were somehow able to get Princess to move us out of it or if they moved us, and it just happened to be the room they picked when they booked the cruise.

 

Now I check my reservation every day or two, to be sure it's not been changed again.

 

David & Ellen

I have to wonder if the passengers in your original cabin are doing a B2B and didn't want to have to change cabins? Not that it makes it right, but I have heard of people losing their cabin for this reason.

We always indicate "no upgrade" and have, so far, been fortunate enough to keep our cabin. However, with only 7 cruises, we are newbies :-) We'll keep our fingers crossed that we continue to keep what we book!

Glad you got a cabin near your original and can still enjoy your cruise!